Shorthand (Pitman, Gregg, Teeline) Search Shorthand Shorthand is any system of rapid handwriting which can be used to transcribe the spoken word. Shorthand systems use a variety of techniques including simplifying existing letters or characters and using special symbols to represent phonemes, words and phrases. A brief history of shorthand systems Ever since the invention of writing scribes have used various techniques to enable them to take notes quickly and efficiently. The Ancient Egyptians devised two scripts, Hieratic and Demotic , as alternatives to their complex Hieroglyphic script, which was used mainly for monumental inscriptions. Both Hieratic and Demotic worked on the same principles as the Hieroglyphs but the symbols were considerably simplified. During the 4th century BC, the Greeks devised a number of symbol systems which reduced letters to a single stroke and which could also be used to represent common words, suffixes and prefixes. Such systems are generally referred to as stenography (narrow writing), brachygraphy (short writing) or tachygraphy (swift writing). Their purpose was to make writing more compact and/or faster.

One shorthand system popular with the Romans was Tironian Notes or Notae Tironianae, which was invented by Cicero's secretary Tiro in order to record Cicero's speeches. It used a combination of simplified letters and special symbols and was used in Europe in various forms until the Middle Ages. During the Han Dynasty (207BC - 220AD) the Chinese devised two methods of rapid writing known as xíngshū (running script) and căoshū (draft script). In the Running script some of the strokes that make up characters are joined and others are left out. In the Draft script each character is written with a single continuous stroke and there is considerable variation in how this is done. As a result, the Draft script is very difficult to read without special training. Attempts have been made to standardise the way the characters are written in the Draft script but they have not met with popular acclaim. Modern shorthand systems There are a number of different shorthand systems currently in use. The most popular ones include: Pitman Shorthand Pitman Shorthand was devised by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) and was first published in 1837.

Over the years is has been gradually improved and has been also adapted for 15 different languages. The system was widely used in the UK and USA by secretaries, reporters and writers, but lost popularity with the invention of pocket tape recorders. Notable features Pitman is phonetic: it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling. For example, the sound [f] in form, elephant and rough is written in the same way for each word. Vowel sounds are optional and are written with small dots, dashes or other shapes next to the main strokes. This helps increase writing speed because most words can be identified from their consonants only. The thickness, length and position of the strokes are all significant. There are many special abbreviations and other tricks to increase writing speed. The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is 350 wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922. Pitman consonants Sample text in Pitman 'Translation' All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Gregg Shorthand Gregg was invented by John Robert Gregg (1867-1948) and was first published in 1888. Since then many different versions have appeared, including some for languages other than English. Gregg is still used, particularly in the USA. Notable features Gregg is phonetic: it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling. For example, the sound [f] in form, elephant and rough is written in the same way for each word. Vowels are written as hooks and circles on the consonants. Gregg consonants Shorthands | Article about shorthands by The Free Dictionary Shorthands | Article about shorthands by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . Related to shorthands: stenographic shorthand, any brief, rapid system of writing that may be used in transcribing, or recording, the spoken word. Such systems, many having characters based on the letters of the alphabet, were used in ancient times; the shorthand of Tiro, Cicero's amanuensis, was used for centuries.

Modern systems date from 1588, when Timothy Bright published his 500-odd symbols for words; a French system was developed by Jacques Cossard in 1651, a German one in 1679. In 1602, Rev. John Willis published the Arte of Stenographie; there followed dozens of systems before 1837, when the shorthand of Isaac Pitman Pitman, Sir Isaac, 1813–97, English inventor of phonographic shorthand. In Stenographic Soundhand (1837) he set forth a shorthand system based on phonetic rather than orthographic principles; adapted to more than a dozen languages, it became one of the most-used ..... Click the link for more information. appeared. This, with improvements, is in wide use in English-speaking countries today; it is perhaps the most rapid shorthand system and is favored by many court and convention reporters. The Pitman system makes use of shading (a line heavily drawn has a meaning different from that of the same line lightly drawn) and of differences in slope and position on a given line; it is geometric in outline and is difficult to master but makes possible very great speed.

John Robert Gregg (1867–1948) in 1888 published a popular system of business shorthand that is still in use today. Its outlines are curved and natural, resembling those of ordinary script; need for lifting the pen was eliminated as much as possible, so that a cursive motion is used; there is no shading, but variation in length of line indicates variation in meaning. The outlines were scientifically worked out for simplicity and writing ease. Other shorthand systems employ shortened forms of longhand, e.g., Speedwriting, used where legibility is the principal concern. On the Continent, F. X. Gabelsberger (Germany) and Émile Duployé (France) originated widely used systems; in South America and Canada, the Sloan-Duployan shorthand is favored. Rapid writing with shorthand machines has also developed. Use of keyboard machines such as the Stenotype or Stenograph machines is extensive in courts of law and other places where great speed, silence, and portability of equipment are essential in recording speech; such machines are now computerized, with the transcribed text appearing on a small display screen.

Even though now virtually all offices use computers and word-processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and audio input (as ..... Click the link for more information. software for correspondence, shorthand continues to have a role in business. Bibliography See H. Glatte, Shorthand Systems of the World (1959); L. A. Leslie, The Story of Gregg Shorthand (1964); J. R. Gregg, Gregg Shorthand Dictionary (1972). Shorthand (also called stenography), a system of rapid writing that uses signs and word and word-group abbreviations to achieve the synchronous transcription of speech and a more simplified and efficient technique of writing. The speed of shorthand is usually four to seven times that of ordinary writing. Shorthand was known in remote antiquity. One of the earliest records of a shorthand system is an inscription on a marble slab dating from 350 B.C ., found in the Acropolis of Athens.

In the schools of ancient Rome, a system of rapid writing (notaría) was taught along with ordinary writing (abecedario). This system, which was used until the 11th century, was called Notae Tironianae after its inventor, Tiro (first century B.C .). The term “stenography” was introduced in 1602 in England, by J. Willis. Since the 17th century, approximately 3,000 shorthand systems and variants have been devised worldwide. At the present time (1976), several dozen systems are used, in view of a continuing tendency to reduce the number of systems. The socialist countries are gradually adopting a unified state system of shorthand. Modern shorthand has both cursive and geometric systems. The signs for consonants in the cursive systems are taken from elements of ordinary writing and are connected with lines. The signs in the geometric systems are circles, parts of circles, and straight lines inclined at various angles, all combined without connecting lines. Both types were invented in England: the geometric system by Willis (1602) and the cursive by S. Bordley (1789).

The geometric systems are generally used for languages with relatively short words, such as English, French, and Spanish; the cursive systems, for languages with long words, such as the Slavic and Scandinavian languages and German. (See Figure 1 for illustrations of several shorthand systems.) Shorthand systems may also be orthographic or phonetic. Orthographic systems retain the spelling patterns of ordinary writing, while phonetic systems form abbreviations by eliminating those letters that correspond to silent sounds. The Russian systems of M. A. Terne (1874) and of Z. I. Sapon’ko and A. I. Sa-pon’ko (1913) were based on stress: among internal vowels, only those with stress were retained. Most shorthand systems represent consonants and vowels differently. In cursive systems, the consonants are depicted with elements of standard handwritten script. The vowels are depicted in several ways: by changing the length and direction of the thin line connecting the consonant signs; by altering the consonant signs, especially by making them heavier; and by changing the position of signs—raising or lowering them in relation to the line and to one another.

The aggregate of shorthand signs for consonants is extralinguistic, thus facilitating the adaptation of a given shorthand system to different languages. In prerevolutionary Russia, shorthand was rarely used. Predominating were variations of German cursive systems. The first original shorthand system for Russian that was put to practical use was the system of M. I. Ivanin, published in 1858 in his On Stenography or the Art of Rapid Writing and Its Application to Russian. Shorthand (Ivanin’s system) was first used in Russia in 1860, at the University of St. Petersburg, to transcribe a debate between Academician M. P. Pogodin and Professor N. I. Kosto-marov on the origins of Rus’. After the October Revolution of 1917, new systems of shorthand appeared, including those of M. I. Lapekin (1920), N. I. Fa-leev (1922), and N. N. Sokolov (1924). During the 1920’s, when shorthand was taught according to different systems, the development of stenographic education was impeded.

A theoretical and practical comparison of the seven best shorthand systems was conducted by the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR in 1933. The all-Union Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR then adopted a decree introducing the Uniform State System of Shorthand (GESS) in the RSFSR, based mainly on Sokolov’s system. The GESS system, now used in the USSR, is a cursive system based on a study of the biomechanics of writing, the frequency of the letters and morphemes in standard written material, and the frequency of the signs in shorthand systems. One of the principles of GESS is standardization: each word can be written in only one way. Vowels are indicated by changing the position of signs in relation to one another. The most convenient shorthand signs, that is, those most closely resembling elements of ordinary writing, are used to represent the most frequently occurring linguistic units. The GESS system has been adapted to Ukrainian, Uzbek, Georgian, Polish, and other languages. The GESS system is continually being improved and simplified, with the aim of achieving maximum ease of transcription and of learning.

Major efforts are being directed toward closely approximating shorthand signs to elements of the letters used in ordinary handwriting, toward eliminating signs impeding standardized connections between combinations of consonants and vowels, and toward reducing the number of composite signs, that is, those representing consonant clusters. REFERENCES Ershov, N. A., comp. Obzor russkikh stenograficheskikh sistem: Istoriia, kritika i literatura russkoi stenografii. St. Petersburg, 1880. Sokolov, N. N. Teoreticheskie osnovy gosudarstvennoi edinoi sistemy stenografii. Moscow, 1949. Iurkovskii, A. M. Stenografiia skvoz’ veka. Moscow, 1969. Petrásek, J. Déjiny tésnopisu. Prague, 1973. N. N. S Short Hand | Article about Short Hand by The Free Dictionary Short Hand | Article about Short Hand by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia .

shorthand, any brief, rapid system of writing that may be used in transcribing, or recording, the spoken word. Such systems, many having characters based on the letters of the alphabet, were used in ancient times; the shorthand of Tiro, Cicero's amanuensis, was used for centuries. Modern systems date from 1588, when Timothy Bright published his 500-odd symbols for words; a French system was developed by Jacques Cossard in 1651, a German one in 1679. In 1602, Rev. John Willis published the Arte of Stenographie; there followed dozens of systems before 1837, when the shorthand of Isaac Pitman Pitman, Sir Isaac, 1813–97, English inventor of phonographic shorthand. In Stenographic Soundhand (1837) he set forth a shorthand system based on phonetic rather than orthographic principles; adapted to more than a dozen languages, it became one of the most-used ..... Click the link for more information. appeared.

This, with improvements, is in wide use in English-speaking countries today; it is perhaps the most rapid shorthand system and is favored by many court and convention reporters. The Pitman system makes use of shading (a line heavily drawn has a meaning different from that of the same line lightly drawn) and of differences in slope and position on a given line; it is geometric in outline and is difficult to master but makes possible very great speed. John Robert Gregg (1867–1948) in 1888 published a popular system of business shorthand that is still in use today. Its outlines are curved and natural, resembling those of ordinary script; need for lifting the pen was eliminated as much as possible, so that a cursive motion is used; there is no shading, but variation in length of line indicates variation in meaning. The outlines were scientifically worked out for simplicity and writing ease. Other shorthand systems employ shortened forms of longhand, e.g., Speedwriting, used where legibility is the principal concern. On the Continent, F. X. Gabelsberger (Germany) and Émile Duployé (France) originated widely used systems; in South America and Canada, the Sloan-Duployan shorthand is favored.

Rapid writing with shorthand machines has also developed. Use of keyboard machines such as the Stenotype or Stenograph machines is extensive in courts of law and other places where great speed, silence, and portability of equipment are essential in recording speech; such machines are now computerized, with the transcribed text appearing on a small display screen. Even though now virtually all offices use computers and word-processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and audio input (as ..... Click the link for more information. software for correspondence, shorthand continues to have a role in business. Bibliography See H. Glatte, Shorthand Systems of the World (1959); L. A. Leslie, The Story of Gregg Shorthand (1964); J. R. Gregg, Gregg Shorthand Dictionary (1972).

Shorthand (also called stenography), a system of rapid writing that uses signs and word and word-group abbreviations to achieve the synchronous transcription of speech and a more simplified and efficient technique of writing. The speed of shorthand is usually four to seven times that of ordinary writing. Shorthand was known in remote antiquity. One of the earliest records of a shorthand system is an inscription on a marble slab dating from 350 B.C ., found in the Acropolis of Athens. In the schools of ancient Rome, a system of rapid writing (notaría) was taught along with ordinary writing (abecedario). This system, which was used until the 11th century, was called Notae Tironianae after its inventor, Tiro (first century B.C .). The term “stenography” was introduced in 1602 in England, by J. Willis. Since the 17th century, approximately 3,000 shorthand systems and variants have been devised worldwide. At the present time (1976), several dozen systems are used, in view of a continuing tendency to reduce the number of systems. The socialist countries are gradually adopting a unified state system of shorthand.

Modern shorthand has both cursive and geometric systems. The signs for consonants in the cursive systems are taken from elements of ordinary writing and are connected with lines. The signs in the geometric systems are circles, parts of circles, and straight lines inclined at various angles, all combined without connecting lines. Both types were invented in England: the geometric system by Willis (1602) and the cursive by S. Bordley (1789). The geometric systems are generally used for languages with relatively short words, such as English, French, and Spanish; the cursive systems, for languages with long words, such as the Slavic and Scandinavian languages and German. (See Figure 1 for illustrations of several shorthand systems.) Shorthand systems may also be orthographic or phonetic. Orthographic systems retain the spelling patterns of ordinary writing, while phonetic systems form abbreviations by eliminating those letters that correspond to silent sounds. The Russian systems of M. A. Terne (1874) and of Z. I. Sapon’ko and A. I. Sa-pon’ko (1913) were based on stress: among internal vowels, only those with stress were retained.

Most shorthand systems represent consonants and vowels differently. In cursive systems, the consonants are depicted with elements of standard handwritten script. The vowels are depicted in several ways: by changing the length and direction of the thin line connecting the consonant signs; by altering the consonant signs, especially by making them heavier; and by changing the position of signs—raising or lowering them in relation to the line and to one another. The aggregate of shorthand signs for consonants is extralinguistic, thus facilitating the adaptation of a given shorthand system to different languages. In prerevolutionary Russia, shorthand was rarely used. Predominating were variations of German cursive systems. The first original shorthand system for Russian that was put to practical use was the system of M. I. Ivanin, published in 1858 in his On Stenography or the Art of Rapid Writing and Its Application to Russian. Shorthand (Ivanin’s system) was first used in Russia in 1860, at the University of St. Petersburg, to transcribe a debate between Academician M. P. Pogodin and Professor N. I. Kosto-marov on the origins of Rus’.

After the October Revolution of 1917, new systems of shorthand appeared, including those of M. I. Lapekin (1920), N. I. Fa-leev (1922), and N. N. Sokolov (1924). During the 1920’s, when shorthand was taught according to different systems, the development of stenographic education was impeded. A theoretical and practical comparison of the seven best shorthand systems was conducted by the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR in 1933. The all-Union Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR then adopted a decree introducing the Uniform State System of Shorthand (GESS) in the RSFSR, based mainly on Sokolov’s system. The GESS system, now used in the USSR, is a cursive system based on a study of the biomechanics of writing, the frequency of the letters and morphemes in standard written material, and the frequency of the signs in shorthand systems. One of the principles of GESS is standardization: each word can be written in only one way. Vowels are indicated by changing the position of signs in relation to one another.

The most convenient shorthand signs, that is, those most closely resembling elements of ordinary writing, are used to represent the most frequently occurring linguistic units. The GESS system has been adapted to Ukrainian, Uzbek, Georgian, Polish, and other languages. The GESS system is continually being improved and simplified, with the aim of achieving maximum ease of transcription and of learning. Major efforts are being directed toward closely approximating shorthand signs to elements of the letters used in ordinary handwriting, toward eliminating signs impeding standardized connections between combinations of consonants and vowels, and toward reducing the number of composite signs, that is, those representing consonant clusters. REFERENCES Ershov, N. A., comp. Obzor russkikh stenograficheskikh sistem: Istoriia, kritika i literatura russkoi stenografii. St. Petersburg, 1880. Sokolov, N. N. Teoreticheskie osnovy gosudarstvennoi edinoi sistemy stenografii. Moscow, 1949. Iurkovskii, A. M. Stenografiia skvoz’ veka.

Moscow, 1969. Petrásek, J. Déjiny tésnopisu. Prague, 1973. N. N. S shorthand Encyclopedia > Literature and the Arts > Language, Linguistics, and Literary Terms > Language and Linguistics shorthand shorthand, any brief, rapid system of writing that may be used in transcribing, or recording, the spoken word. Such systems, many having characters based on the letters of the alphabet, were used in ancient times; the shorthand of Tiro, Cicero's amanuensis, was used for centuries. Modern systems date from 1588, when Timothy Bright published his 500-odd symbols for words; a French system was developed by Jacques Cossard in 1651, a German one in 1679. In 1602, Rev. John Willis published the Arte of Stenographie; there followed dozens of systems before 1837, when the shorthand of Isaac Pitman appeared. This, with improvements, is in wide use in English-speaking countries today; it is perhaps the most rapid shorthand system and is favored by many court and convention reporters.

The Pitman system makes use of shading (a line heavily drawn has a meaning different from that of the same line lightly drawn) and of differences in slope and position on a given line; it is geometric in outline and is difficult to master but makes possible very great speed. John Robert Gregg (1867–1948) in 1888 published a popular system of business shorthand that is still in use today. Its outlines are curved and natural, resembling those of ordinary script; need for lifting the pen was eliminated as much as possible, so that a cursive motion is used; there is no shading, but variation in length of line indicates variation in meaning. The outlines were scientifically worked out for simplicity and writing ease. Other shorthand systems employ shortened forms of longhand, e.g., Speedwriting, used where legibility is the principal concern. On the Continent, F. X. Gabelsberger (Germany) and Émile Duployé (France) originated widely used systems; in South America and Canada, the Sloan-Duployan shorthand is favored. Rapid writing with shorthand machines has also developed.

Use of keyboard machines such as the Stenotype or Stenograph machines is extensive in courts of law and other places where great speed, silence, and portability of equipment are essential in recording speech; such machines are now computerized, with the transcribed text appearing on a small display screen. Even though now virtually all offices use computers and word-processing software for correspondence, shorthand continues to have a role in business. See H. Glatte, Shorthand Systems of the World (1959); L. A. Leslie, The Story of Gregg Shorthand (1964); J. R. Gregg, Gregg Shorthand Dictionary (1972). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Pitman Shorthand Pitman Shorthand Pitman Shorthand was devised by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) and was first published in 1837. Over the years is has been gradually improved and has been also adapted for 15 different languages.

The system was widely used in the UK and USA by secretaries, reporters and writers, but lost popularity with the invention of pocket tape recorders. Notable features Pitman is phonetic: it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling. For example, the sound [f] in form, elephant and rough is written in the same way for each word. Vowel sounds are optional and are written with small dots, dashes or other shapes next to the main strokes. This helps increase writing speed because most words can be identified from their consonants only. The thickness, length and position of the strokes are all significant. There are many special abbreviations and other tricks to increase writing speed. The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is 350 wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922. Pitman consonants A Guide to Alternative Handwriting and Shorthand Systems for Dummies Introduction The letters you are now reading, while well adapted to the eye to be read, are so ill adapted to the hand to be written that schools teach longhand as an alternative to printing them. The more cursive longhand is easy to learn, but only about 10% faster than printing.

Alternative handwriting systems offer 100% or better improvements in handwriting ease and speed. If you could spend the rest of your life taking notes or keeping a journal/diary while writing two or three times faster, then, gee, why not? As a bonus for learning an alternative system, you can be almost certain that no one you know will be able to read anything you write, so you will have learned not only a fast but secret way to write. Learning an alternative to longhand can not only be fun and way cool, but practical as well. Most alternative systems write words the way they sound, not the way they are spelled. English spelling is so quirky that winning a spelling bee is a major achievement, and even the champs falter at some point. While the Phoenicians may have needed only 26 symbols to represent their speech sounds, English has from 32 to 50 speech sounds depending on who's doing the counting, and using only 26 letters to represent them just doesn't cut it. To make up for the missing symbols, several letters are often combined to represent a sound.

This wouldn't be so bad if there was any consistency involved, but as all children and ESL students know there isn't, as English is only about 40% phonetic (which is to say 60% of common words have irregular spellings). For example the "sh" sound can be spelled 13 different ways: ocean, machine, special, pshaw, sure, schist, conscience, nauseous, she, tension, issue, mission, nation. With vowels things are even worse (about 20 spellings per vowel sound!). The "oo" sound has 29 different spellings: rule, ruby, flue, troupe, fruit, through, maneuver, wooed, group, ooze, grew, rheumatism, move, bruise, canoe, two, moon, do, plus 11 other spellings found in less common words. On average, there are at least 13 different ways to spell each sound in frequently used Engish words. If all English words are counted, there are 28 different spellings for each sound, or over 1,100 ways to spell 40 sounds.

No wonder even very good spellers have only about a 50/50 chance of correctly spelling a word that is new to them. The way out of this madness is to write using a phonetic alphabet—one sound, one symbol. Because multiple letters are often used to indicate a single sound, the average English word has more letters than sounds. Writing phonetically requires learning more symbols initially, but requires fewer symbols per word, and so is faster. If each sound is represented by the simplest possible symbol (single stroke lines, loops and hooks), the number of strokes needed to write a word can be greatly reduced in comparison to longhand. This is how the alternative systems can be so much faster than looooooonghand, which uses several strokes per letter and often several letters per sound. Pitman Shorthand The better known alternative systems include the Pitman system, developed by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1837. It is based on geometrical curves and lines in varying lengths and angles written on lined paper. Lines are also written thin or thick using a special flexible fountain pen tip, though a pencil will work. Here's an example from The Joy of Pitman Shorthand .

The Pitman system is a complete phonetic alphabet, though diacritical marks have to be added alongside the lines to indicate vowels, which is awkward. When speed is important they are often omitted. But since it is possible to write each word that sounds different in a unique way, I consider Pitman's system to be a form of handwriting as well as shorthand. Shorthand is a system of abbreviation in which only a bare outline of a word is written—just enough (note the middle line above) to allow you to later decipher from the word's outline and its context what the word is. Shorthand systems go for maximum speed at the expense of readability. Shorthand systems can become readible once you learn to sight read all the outlines or "brief forms," which can number in the thousands, but just learning the basic symbol set won't cut it. The Pitman system is still used, especially in England. Do check it out. It is not easy to learn or become proficient in, but it is fast (up to 10X faster than longhand!), elegantly austere, and has been adapted for use in many languages other than English.

Gregg Shorthand John Robert Gregg devised the most famous of alternative systems in 1888. All lines are of the same thickness, position relative to a line is irrelevant so lined paper is not needed, and awkward diacritical marks are avoided though not abscent. Gregg Shorthand won out over Pitman Shorthand in America, and was widely taught in public schools as an essential skill needed by office workers to take dictation. Many books are available, and most public libraries in America will have copies. Unfortunately, Gregg Shorthand is only a shorthand system; you can only write outlines of words. If you write something and then immediately transcribe it, as secretaries tend to do, then no major problem, but if you try to read something you wrote last year, then a major effort may be needed to decipher it, unless, that is, you have so mastered the system that you can sight read thousands of brief forms. Although Gregg Shorthand is nominally phonetic, in practice outlines sometimes follow the sound of a word, and sometimes its spelling. Dictionaries are available to show you how to outline tens of thousands of words, but the need for such dictionaries should tell you something of the inherent ambiguities of the system.

The system is fast, attractively cursive, but frustrating for personal use since each vowel symbol can represent several possible vowel sounds. It is the exact opposite of printing alphabetic characters by hand; handwritten text is readable, but blocky and slow to write, while Gregg Shorthand is highly cursive and fast, but only marginally readable. Teeline Shorthand Teeline Shorthand is taught to journalism majors in some Commonwealth countries, mainly the UK, but is little known elsewhere. James Hill, an instructor of Pitman Shorthand, developed it in 1970. It is simpler than Pitman Shorthand, without the need to use both thick and thin lines, or diacritical marks. It is not phonetic, but instead is based on the standard alphabet, and so retains the inadequacies of that alphabet. Vowels are often omitted for speed at the expense of readability, as in most shorthand systems. It is intended to aid in taking dictation by creating word outlines, and so needs to be transcribed soon after it is taken. It is, therefore, more suited to professional than personal use. Alphabetic Shorthand Systems Various systems of rapid writing based on alphabetic print or longhand characters have been devised.

Speedwriting , Stenoscript, Forkner, Easyscript , AlphaHand, Baine's Typed Shorthand, HySpeed Longhand, Abbreviatrix, Quickhand, and Carter Briefhand are examples. Keyscript , a new system based on Pitman's, claims to be the fastest of the Alphabetic systems. Few if any new symbols need to be learned. Most systems consist of rules for abbreviating words together with memorized abbreviations. If the rules are consistently applied, they can be reversed to decode your notes. These systems have the advantage of working with both pen and paper, and with keyboards. Word processing software, such as Word, could possibly be set up to decode and expand words as you type which would allow you to speed type. Rules usually call for dropping of most vowels, some words, and using semi-phonetic spelling.

An example of "Briefhand" might be: "The Sierra Club sued the Forest Service to stop clear-cutting on the National Forests of Texas, and judge Robert Parker decided that clear-cutting "took" red-cockaded woodpeckers within the meaning of the Endangered Species Act." Which might be abbreviated to: Srr Clb sued FS to stp cc on NF's in Tx, v jdg R.P. dcd'd cc "took" RCWs undr ESA. Shorthand systems based on alphabetic characters can always fall back on longhand where clarity is important or when you might forget what an abbreviation stands for, such as "RCWs" standing for "red-cockaded woodpeckers." The example above, unless transcribed soon, would likely become undecipherable. Still, given that many people are spending more time typing than writing by hand, these systems have their appeal. As modifications on longhand, they retain the shortcomings of multi-stroke symbols per letter and, not being phonetic, the vagaries of English orthography. They lack the elegance of the symbol systems, such as Pitman's and Gregg's, that at least avoid the mistake of building on the flawed foundation of longhand.

Handywrite Unlike the other systems mentioned, except Pitman's, this is both a handwriting and shorthand system. It contains symbols for all the consonants and vowels needed to write English phonetically, and so when words are written in full, the writing is unambiguously readable. Simple strokes, very much like those in Gregg Shorthand, are used, so the system is cursive and fast. In fact, most of the symbols used for the consonants are the same as used in Gregg Shorthand. The main difference is that enough symbols have been added to represent all necessary vowel sounds. In this it is like Pitman's system, but without dependence on position relative to lines, strokes of different width, or use of diacritical marks. Even when written in full, words are much shorter (fewer strokes) than when written in longhand. When abbreviations are used, making Handywrite into a shorthand system, writing becomes progressively faster as more abbreviations are learned—but at least you can get by without using or learning any abbreviations, unlike the shorthand-only systems. Normal punctuation symbols can be used which adds to readability. A Handywrite Web site is available to aid in learning the system (for free).

The handwriting at the beginning of this page is the title in Handywrite. Bell's Visible Speech Although not intended as a replacement for longhand, this system provides a means of recording human speech sounds, and not just those used to make words, but virtually any speech sound! Alexander Melville Bell, whose more famous son was Alexander Graham Bell of telephone fame, developed Visible Speech in 1864 as a kind of universal alphabet that reduces all vocal sounds into a series of symbols. He was working with the deaf and wanted to illustrate for them how speech sounds are made by using a shorthand system based on anatomical positions within the human vocal tract. It was the first system for notating the sounds of speech independent of any particular language or dialect. The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on Bell's work. The International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used by all serious students of speech. It has the advantage of being more easily printable by hand or keyboard than Bell's Visible Speech. The IPA is the final guide to accurate pronunciation, as all other guides and pronunciation keys used in most dictionaries are flawed.

It is the product of the International Phonetic Association, which in IPA would be written: While not intended to be fast, it is the most precise and accurate form of writing. It distinguishes between far more speech sounds than are minimally needed to identify one word from another. With IPA you can write dialects of English, other languages, and individual speech patterns. The phonetic alphabets used in alternative handwriting systems like Handywrite are much simpler, based on the minimum number of speech sounds (phonemes) actually needed to distinguish one word from another. This allows you to write basic English, but not the subtle nuances of English dialects. Blissymbolics Blissymbolics is a rather intriguing effort to create a modern ideographic writing system based on concepts rather than words. It is similar to Chinese and Egyptian writing systems. Written Chinese can be read by people speaking mutually unintelligible languages, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, or even Japanese. Developed by the Austrian Charles Bliss, Blissymbolics was originally conceived as a universal written language that all native language speakers (speaking thousands of different languages) could learn and communicate in.

The idea is that it would be much easier for everyone to learn an ideographic written language than a constructed spoken, quasi-European language like Esperanto, or, worse, expect everyone to learn English. If everyone in the world could just communicate with one another, Bliss thought, then international understanding and world peace would follow, or at least be more likely. Today Blissymbolics is used to provide individuals with severe speech disabilities a written language to communicate in, although its more idealistic intentions have not been forgotten. Of course it makes no claim to being fast to write, but if you're looking for something really different, try Blissymbolics and have some fun with your brain. Conclusions Most people will probably never bother to learn any alternative handwriting system. Schools and colleges, although depending heavily on lectures, will probably never provide students with a means to take notes efficiently—as sensible as that would be. A few questioning souls, however, will realize that longhand sucks, and will seek alternatives. More power to them, and I hope that those who are willing to learn some new tricks will have fun doing so. For some good advise on how to learn any shorthand system, checkout Shorthand Systems .

If I have omitted a system that should have been mentioned or committed some error, let me know (use Contact link below). Eric Lee Fine Poster Art Support this site: Visit our Zazzle store featuring ultra hi-res images of artworks, Hubble/ESA/NASA space images, Mandelbrot fractals, maps and more. Images up to 525 megapixels allow for fine printing at the largest sizes. Give a fine print as a gift that could hang on someone's wall for a hundred years. shorthand | Britannica.com Shorthand Alternative Titles: brachygraphy, stenography, tachygraphy Related Topics cryptology Shorthand, also called stenography, a system for rapid writing that uses symbols or abbreviations for letters, words, or phrases. Among the most popular modern systems are Pitman, Gregg, and Speedwriting. Besides being known as stenography (close, little, or narrow writing), shorthand is sometimes called tachygraphy (swift writing) and brachygraphy (short writing). Because shorthand can be written rapidly, the writer is able to record the proceedings of legislative bodies, the testimony of law courts, or dictation in business correspondence.

In addition, shorthand has been used through the centuries as a cultural tool: George Bernard Shaw wrote his plays in shorthand; Samuel Pepys recorded his diary in shorthand; Cicero’s orations, Martin Luther’s sermons, and Shakespeare’s plays were all preserved by means of shorthand. History and development of shorthand Through the centuries shorthand has been written in systems based on orthography (normal spelling), on phonetics (the sounds of words), and on arbitrary symbols, such as a small circle within a larger circle to represent the phrase, “around the world.” Most historians date the beginnings of shorthand with the Greek historian Xenophon , who used an ancient Greek system to write the memoirs of Socrates. It was in the Roman Empire, however, that shorthand first became generally used. Marcus Tullius Tiro , a learned freedman who was a member of Cicero’s household, invented the notae Tironianae (“Tironian notes”), the first Latin shorthand system. Devised in 63 bc, it lasted over a thousand years. Tiro also compiled a shorthand dictionary. Among the early accomplished shorthand writers were the emperor Titus, Julius Caesar , and a number of bishops.

With the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe, however, shorthand became associated with witchcraft and magic, and disappeared. While he was archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket (c. 1118–70) encouraged research into Tiro’s shorthand. By the 15th century, with the discovery in a Benedictine monastery of a lexicon of Ciceronian notes and a Psalter written in Tironian shorthand, a renewed interest in the practice was aroused. Somewhat influenced by Tiro’s system, Timothy Bright designed an English system in 1588 that consisted of straight lines, circles, and half circles. (Tiro’s method was cursive, based on longhand script.) Bright’s system was called Characterie: an Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character.

Similar Topics Braille The 17th century produced four important inventors of shorthand systems: John Willis, who is considered to be the father of modern shorthand; Thomas Shelton , whose system was used by Samuel Pepys to write his famous diary; Jeremiah Rich, who popularized the art by publishing not only his system but also the Psalms and the New Testament in his method of shorthand; and William Mason, whose method was used to record sermons and to translate the Bible in the years following the Reformation . Mason’s system was later adapted and became the official system of the British Parliament. Several other systems were invented in the next decades, but most of them were short-lived. One of the most successful was that of the British stenographer Samuel Taylor, who invented a system in 1786 that was based on that of one of his predecessors. Taylor’s method was adapted into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, German, Dutch, Hungarian, and other languages. The Industrial Revolution brought a demand for stenographers in business. Because the geometric systems then in use required a high level of education and long training, a need existed for a method that would be easier to learn.

The German Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (1789–1849) turned away from geometric methods and developed a simple cursive system. Gabelsberger’s system, which he called “Speech-sign art,” was based on Latin longhand characters and had a neatness and beauty of outline that is unsurpassed. It enjoyed a spontaneous success and spread to Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia. The system’s simplicity made it an easy matter to translate it into other languages, and in 1928 it became the Italian national system. Modern symbol systems Name that Mark In 1852 Isaac Pitman’s brother, Benn Pitman, brought the system to America , where, with several slight modifications, it became the method most extensively used in the United States and Canada. An investigation in 1889 stated that 97 percent of the shorthand writers in America used the Isaac Pitman system or one of its modifications. Pitman shorthand has been adapted to Afrikaans, Arabic, Armenian, Dutch, French, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Spanish, and other languages.

The Irish-born John Robert Gregg (1867–1948) taught himself at the age of 10 an adaptation of Taylor’s shorthand. He then studied Pitman by himself but disliked its angles, shading, and positioning. Later, while in his early teens, he read a history of shorthand by Thomas Anderson, a member of the Shorthand Society of London. Anderson listed the essentials of a good shorthand system, stating that no method then in use possessed them: independent characters for the vowels and consonants, all characters written with the same thickness, all characters written on a single line of writing, and few and consistent abbreviation principles. Gregg was 18 when he invented his own system and 21 when he published it in the form of a pamphlet, Light-Line Phonography (1888). The Gregg system was predominantly a curve-motion shorthand with circles, hooks, and loops. Based on the ellipse or oval and on the slope of longhand, its motion was curvilinear. Obtuse angles were eliminated by natural blending of lines, vowels were joined, shading was eliminated, and writing was lineal, or in one position.

Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest In 1893 Gregg took his system to the United States, and Light-Line Phonography became Gregg Shorthand. The inventor found that, except for the eastern coastal cities, shorthand was virtually unknown. At that time high schools began teaching shorthand, and Gregg traveled through the Midwest, the West, and the South, selling his system and demonstrating his teaching methods with great success. The Gregg system supplanted Pitman’s as the predominant system taught in the United States. It also spread to Canada and to the British Isles . Gregg shorthand has been published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Russian, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Scottish Gaelic, Esperanto, Sinhalese, and Polish. An early German system of importance was the Stolze-Schrey method. Wilhelm Stolze invented his system at about the same time as Gabelsberger and along similar lines. In 1885 Ferdinand Schrey, a Berlin merchant, attempted to simplify the Gabelsberger system. Sometime later the Stolze and Schrey methods were merged and became the leading system in Germany and Switzerland.

Stolze-Schrey shorthand was also adapted to other languages, including Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. In 1924, after two decades of development, a new system based on the Gabelsberger and Stolze-Schrey methods was completed. As revised in 1936 and 1968, the Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift is the principal system now used in Germany and Austria. Modern abbreviated longhand systems The system of Speedwriting shorthand was created around 1924 by Emma Dearborn , an instructor at Columbia University . Her method was designed to be taken down on the typewriter; but in 1942 it was changed to be written by hand with pen or pencil. Speedwriting shorthand uses the letters of the alphabet and the known punctuation marks to represent sounds. For example, the sound of ch is written with a capital C; the word each is thus written eC. More than 20,000 words in the Speedwriting dictation can be written with a total of 60 rules and a list of approximately 100 brief forms and standard abbreviations.

Speedwriting shorthand is taught in several languages—including English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Flemish, and Afrikaans—in many countries. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Forkner Alphabet shorthand was first published in 1952 in the United States. The author, Hamden Forkner, spent 10 years in research before publishing the first edition of the new system, which uses a combination of conventional letters and a few symbols for the hard-to-write letters and sounds. For example, H is expressed by a short dash above the line. This same short dash through the letter C gives the ch sound, through the longhand S it gives sh, and across the T it designates th. Abbreviations are used for a number of common words. Another American method, Hy-Speed Longhand, was first published under that title in 1932. Based on Andrew J. Graham’s Brief Longhand, published in 1857, its principles include the omission of silent letters and most vowels, the substitution of letters, numbers, or signs, and the combination of certain letters.

Stenoscript ABC Shorthand is a phonetic system using only longhand and common punctuation marks. It originated in London in 1607 and was revised by Manuel Claude Avancena, who published a modern edition in 1950. Stenoscript has 24 brief forms that must be memorized; e.g., ak stands for acknowledge, ac for accompany, bz for business, and gvt for government. Stenospeed originated in 1950 in the United States; the first publication was called Stenospeed High Speed Longhand, but in 1951 the system was revised under the name of Stenospeed ABC Shorthand. It is used by many schools as a standard text. Other alphabetic or partially alphabetic systems have also been devised. Among these is Teeline, a system used extensively in Great Britain. Machine shorthand A method of recording speech by using machines became commercially feasible around 1906, when the Stenotype machine was invented by Ward Stone Ireland, an American stenographer and court reporter. At present, the Stenograph and Stenotype machines are used in offices to some extent, but they are principally employed for conference and court reporting .

Both machines have keyboards of 22 keys. Because the operator uses all fingers and both thumbs, any number of keys can be struck simultaneously. The machines print roman letters on a strip of paper that folds automatically into the back of the machine. The operator controls the keys by touch and is thus able to watch the speaker. The fingers of the left hand control the keys that print consonants occurring before vowels. These keys print on the left side of the tape. The thumbs control the vowels, which are printed in the centre of the tape, and the fingers of the right hand control the consonants that follow the vowels, which are printed on the right side of the tape. There are not separate keys for each letter of the English alphabet; thus, those letters for which there are no keys are represented by combinations of other letters. Abbreviations are used for some of the most frequent words, giving the operator the ability to write two or three words in one stroke. shorthand - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Stenography, more often called shorthand, is any writing system that uses symbols or shortcuts that can be made to represent letters of the alphabet, words, or phrases.

(Stenography is from Greek words meaning "narrow writing.") The purpose of shorthand is to be able to write approximately as fast as someone speaks, in order to take down everything that is said. An early French shorthand text by Jacques Cossard in 1651 was entitled ’A Method for Writing as Fast as One Can Speak’. In court trials court reporters use shorthand machines to take down every word spoken by all participants in a case. The record must be accurate, to safeguard the rights of all parties to a case. Article Contributors shorthand - definition of shorthand in English | Oxford Dictionaries Definition of shorthand in English: shorthand noun 1[mass noun] A method of rapid writing by means of abbreviations and symbols, used especially for taking dictation. The major systems of shorthand currently in use are those devised in 1837 by Sir Isaac Pitman and (in the US) in 1888 by John R.

Gregg (1867–1948): ‘he took notes in shorthand’ [as modifier] ‘a shorthand typist’ More example sentences ‘For journalists, it could well signal the death-knell of the spiral-bound notebook with its copious shorthand notes.’ ‘Otherwise, he would not be able to record the thoughts of Martin O'Neill, and would have to rely on shorthand skills.’ ‘They condense complicated concepts into shorthand words and phrases, saving time.’ ‘Well I guess they do have some shorthand or abbreviations but then, how do they remember them all?’ ‘Each page on the pads is filled with all sorts of bizarre shorthand scribbled in a totally random fashion around the edges.’ ‘Recently an auction of items belonging to Isaac Pitman, inventor of the Pitman shorthand system of writing, went up for sale.’ ‘He even went to great lengths to conceal his work by writing in cryptic shorthand or writing backwards.’ ‘It never prevailed over the more popular Pitman system of shorthand, even though it was easier to write.’ ‘When he was just 12, Mr Walton's father persuaded a local journalist to teach his son shorthand in the hope that it would open doors to a better career.’ ‘He cannot read shorthand

 and throws Harker's encrypted writings on the fire in disgust.’ ‘Part of the symphony was substantially complete, but the rest consisted of shorthand scribbles and anguished remarks in the margins.’ ‘With the development of girls' education and the acquisition of typing and shorthand skills, women increasingly made their mark on this sector.’ ‘A shorthand system such as the Banff system is completely opaque to nonspecialists.’ ‘Her tired assistant sat opposite her scribbling away on her notepad, writing in shorthand every word that her employer was saying.’ ‘These notes are almost entirely written in Aramaic in a form of shorthand abbreviations.’ ‘The chemical formula provides a great deal of information about a substance in shorthand form.’ ‘Coleridge also gave lectures on general literature and philosophy, which have survived in the form of notes and shorthand reports.’ ‘He and his brothers all helped out with reporting and were so skilled at shorthand that each could read the other's verbatim notes.’ ‘Sir Issac Pitman began the first correspondence course for his shorthand system.’ ‘Each supports the other by writing letters composed of little more than their own shorthand dialogue.’ Synonyms

Question: Who devised the most widely used shorthand writing system in 1837
Answer: Isaac Pitman